In 1906, F.T. Marinetti, for the first time in his life, used the term avant-garde in connection with the idea of the future, and in doing so
he paved the way for what is now commonly called the modernist orhistorical avant-garde. Since 1906, the ties between the early
twentieth-century European aesthetic vanguard and politics have been
a matter of continual critical debate. With a century gone by and a vast
archive of research on the matter filled, it may be a good idea to look
back on the debate. What major currents and topics can we discern in
it? Are there noticeable shifts in the way critics have approached the
interconnection between the modernist avant-garde and politics in the
course of the foregoing century? And what do critics actually mean
when they talk about the "political" aesthetic vanguard? Finally, is
there anything left to be added to the immense archive?

Kirsten Strom (Grand Valley State University)

"Sometimes I Spit for Pleasure on My Mother's Portrait".

On the Strategic Uses of Inflammatory Rhetoric in French Surrealism

If we are to take the collected documents of the French Surrealists
literally, we can only conclude that the group consisted of nothing less
than murderers, child molesters, and slashers of women's eyeballs.
Was it not Breton himself who publicly advocated that the "purest
Surrealist act" was to aim a loaded pistol into a crowd and begin
shooting indiscriminately? And yet, as we know, there is no evidence
to suggest that any Surrealist was ever guilty of such crimes. A

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